Half plain / half specialty Specialty- we made hone made enchiladas last night so I had extra pork filling. Used that as the base with olive oil - no sauce. Then pepper jack and mozzarella topped with banana peppers and drizzle of sour cream and Cholula

RottenAtom wrote:Man, where to begin... With a quick story I spose. On the last day of the trip, we were waiting to get on the Staten Island Ferry and I was talking to a dude from NYC with a thick Brooklyn accent - cool guy. When I complemented the city's food and mentioned that we hadn't had a bad meal all week, he matter-of-factly said the following without looking up from his phone, "Yeah man, this is New York City. We take that fudge seriously."

Food was the bomb and I'm notoriously picky. All I ever want to eat is homemade pasta and quality pizza and there was no shortage of either.

Pizza

We tried a bunch of places and a variety of styles. It's tough to rank the different styles against each other, so I split them up. Here's a breakdown:

Best Classic New York Slice

1. Di Fara Pizza, Midwood Brooklyn2. Patsy's Pizza, East Harlem

3. Joe's Pizza, Greenwich Village4. Scarr's Pizza, Lower East Side

5. Two Brothers, East Village

Di Fara is worth the train ride. Old school master Dom Domenico still makes every pizza himself. He's intensely focused and shows a dedication to his craft similar to an elite sushi or ramen chef. Get there sooner rather than later - I hear it may not be open much longer. Domenico is getting old. The pizza hit the spot. Despite getting full on pasta less than two hours before Di Fara, my wife and I devoured a whole pie and savored that fudge. This was hands-down Claudia's favorite of the trip. While you're in the area, check out the Jewish bakeries for good black and white cookies, sprinkle cookies, babka, and other baked goods.

Patsy's Pizza is a close second. It's one of the old school coal oven joints and the crust has nice little burnt patches. The atmosphere is better than Di Fara.

Joe's Pizza is a step down, but that's more of a complement to 1 & 2 and not a knock on Joe's. I had a slice of plain cheese and a slice of margherita and enjoyed them both. It's not pizza I'd wait for though. Luckily, it rained enough on our trip to pretty much kill the lines/waits, but not be a major inconvenience. We didn't have to wait at Di Fara, Patsy's, or Joe's.

Scarr's is located close to The Metrograph movie theater and is a small spot with a bar and a few booths. I dug the atmosphere. We got a classic cheese slice and a Sicilian and both were tasty, but nothing to write home about. The decor was cool. They had some Coming to America "art" on the wall and my family's always loved that movie. I mentioned that to the bartender and she grabbed it off the wall and snapped our pic with it. Cool vibe in there.

Two Brothers was not a destination. It was a $1 slice of pizza late night that was better than I expected it to be.

Best Pizza Place I Haven't Mentioned Yet

L&B Spumoni Gardens, Gravesend Brooklyn

L&B has been on my list for over five years. It was the only place I knew I had to visit. Back in the day there was another NYC thread on EB and people were giving their pizza recommendations. Then Foodie busted in talking fudge and telling people how it really is. He was repping L&B and the pics he posted looked good. As a longtime Spumoni fan, I loved the name of the place. Spumoni Gardens sounds like paradise or something. This place has a history with many stories and mob ties. Google it. Someone got the special sauce recipe from their sister and opened a place in Staten Island creating a problem and a sit down and who knows what else. And I think the owner was gunned down mob style not too long ago. Anyways, it was an even further train ride than Di Fara and worth the trip.

The pizza looks similar to Detroit style - square with the sauce on top. It doesn't have the same texture crust though - it's much softer, but still thick - and it doesn't have the thick layer of crispy cheese around the crust. It does however have it's own burnt cheese layer on parts of the crust that is different from Detroit style but still tasty. I liked L&B's sauce quite a bit.

The Spumoni was easily the best I've ever had. We ate a pint on the spot after crushing way too many slices of the heavy pizza. When I was talking up the Spumoni beforehand, Claudia was like ...whatever... and then she tried that fudge and got lost in it. I wish I could get that on the regular down here. Maaaaan.

Neopolitan Style

The standard for a Neopolitan style margherita pizza was high. None of that half assed bs quasi modern Neo stuff.

Met up with jkw3000, 35mmpaul, and Danny4342 at Roberta's and had good hangs and pizza. Regular margherita was on point, but the Cheezus H Christ was the star. Four cheeses and honey. When I first tried the pizza here, there was a familiarity about it, but I didn't connect the dots until a week after I'd been home. My wife was making pizza from scratch at home and when she was referencing the dough recipe she's used for the last couple years, she realized that it was from Roberta's, hence the familiarity with the crust.

Lil' Frankies also had a solid margherita, but my favorite pie there had taleggio, rosemary, and truffle oil. They also have killer burrata and spinach ravioli.

Altesi Downtown's margherita was on cracker thin crust and paired well with the cacio and pepe. Streetside tables on the sidewalk in SoHo. This place is close to Dominique Ansels (more on that later...)

Cotto had the best pizza oven I've ever seen in an airport and their mojito was one of the best drinks I had all trip. Speaking of, I didn't find the cocktails all that impressive in NYC. I had a bunch of them and they were relatively pricey, but none of them wowed me in any kind of way. Lots of good ones, few great ones.

Pizza Places I Didn't Get To

The main one is Juliana's in Dumbo. That is the one place we encountered a line. We were heading down to L&B and tried to stop by Juliana's to have a pizza on the way. We opted to split to not miss out on L&B.

Tottono's Pizza is another one in South Brooklyn that's been around for awhile. You apparently get a healthy dose of attitude with your pizza at this no nonsense place with a coal oven.

Lombardi's. Didn't feel pressed to make it here, but I'd like to try it eventually.

I'd also like to try Bleecker St., Keste, Motorino, Luna's, Lucali's and a bunch of other places there just wasn't time for.

. . . . .

That's a wrap on pizza. I have some pics I can post and I'll recommend some other stuff as well

Codeblue wrote:I'm a bit surprised ya didn't make time for Best Pizza especially after frank talking it up. The BA reviewer really seemed to like it as well. Then again BA guy's number 1 was your number 4.

I'll have to try it next time. L&B, Di Fara, and Patsy's were all higher on my list going in and all of them required special trips. Who/what's BA?